Tigers’ nostalgic return to old stomping ground

"This many people usually don't turn up to see a fitness test at six in the morning. I'm sure they are here because it's happening at the Bangabandhu [National] Stadium," said Shahriar Nafees, the current cricket operations manager, after the national team's fitness test at the famed venue yesterday. 

Thirty-five cricketers turned up at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) yesterday before 6:00 am for a physical assessment test, which required them to run a 1600m race in the newly installed athletic tracks.

This running session was the first professional cricket-related activity at the venue since January 31, 2015. The BNS did host the inauguration ceremony of the ODI World Cup in 2011, but there was no on-field cricketing activity at the venue.

Although the BNS has been a football stadium since 2006, it remains a venue deeply rooted in cricketing history.

Even before Bangladesh came into existence, this venue hosted Pakistan's inaugural Test match against India in 1955. A total of seven Tests took place at BNS, which was then called the Dhaka Stadium, in the pre-independence period where many legends of the game graced the venue. Bangladesh's Test journey also began here in November 2000 against India.

It is only the second cricket stadium after Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which hosted the first ever Test between England and Australia in 1877, to host the inaugural Test of two nations.

Other than Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim, none of the other cricketers present at the BNS yesterday have ever played at the venue. Even Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur's experience is quite limited, with the former playing here in a domestic tournament back in 2004 and the latter taking part in some age-level cricket.

For Shahriar and the current team manager Nafees Iqbal, however, memories of their playing days at the venue came rushing back once they stepped out on the field.

Nafees' lone Test century came at the venue in 2004, when he batted almost eight hours for his 121, which ensured a draw for Bangladesh against Zimbabwe and, in the process, their maiden Test series win. Shahriar, on the other hand, never played an international game at the venue but had played many domestic matches here. He still remembered which gate of the venue would be shut down if there was a risk of a fan riot after a heated match at the club level.

"My domestic career began here. The pivotal innings of my career, the century for the Under-19 team, came here," said the former Bangladesh team opener.
Cricket's return to BNS, even if it was for just one morning, happened because of the newly appointed strength and conditioning coach of the Bangladesh team, Nathan Kiely.

The Australian coach wanted to assess the fitness levels of the cricketers and felt that having them run 1600m on an athletics track was the best way to achieve it.

The 35 cricketers were divided into two groups for the run. Pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib won in one group while his fellow pacer Nahid Rana easily won in the second one and did the iconic Usain Bolt pose after his win to the raucous applause of his teammates.

Mahmudullah, the eldest of the bunch, came last but the 38-year-old received cheers from everyone as he crossed the finish line. The second oldest of the bunch, the 36-year-old Mushfiqur, however, outran many of the youngsters and finished the race behind Tanzim.

Bangladesh Cricket Board trainer Iftekharul Islam said that the race was a way to assess the fitness level of the cricketers ahead of a busy schedule, where the national team is set to play at least 29 matches across three formats in the next seven months.

Shakib Al Hasan, who is in the USA and Mustafizur Rahman, who is busy in the Indian Premier League, could not be a part of the session while Soumya Sarkar, Taijul Islam and Taskin Ahmed were absent due to injury.